[PLUG] Resolved: Old Hard Drive Disposal

[Richard C. Steffens]

On 06/21/2012 03:25 PM, John Sechrest wrote:
> I have used the platters for art. Effectively putting holes in them.

Interesting idea. Of course I've seen that over the decades starting 
with larger platters from 300 MB Control Data Disk Packs. I've certainly 
got enough to do something interesting. I'll give that some thought.


On 06/21/2012 03:29 PM, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> I was under the impression that FreeGeek did the secure thing with 
> them, then sells the magnets. 
On 06/21/2012 03:42 PM, Michael Dexter wrote:
> Indeed! They have a dedicated breaker that they use on drives they do 
> not plan on using. They scrub drives otherwise. If you mark them as 
> "dead", they're pretty much guaranteed to go to the breaker and get 
> properly recycled. 

I knew that FreeGeek scrubs every drive the get before doing anything 
else with it. I wasn't aware of them breaking the non-functioning ones 
before recycling them. That's good to know.


On 06/21/2012 04:38 PM, Paul Mullen wrote:
> Disassemble them yourself. Platters become shiny coasters or high-tech 
> mobile components (the artsy things that hang from the ceiling). 
> Magnets get stuck to the fridge and never come off. 

On 06/21/2012 03:30 PM, Rich Shepard wrote:
> Don't know if it's a better idea, but I used to have a strong tape 
> demagnitizer that I'd use on dead hard drives in the '80s and '90s. A 
> few circles on both top and bottom of the drive case and I was 
> sufficiently confident the bits were scrambled beyond redemption. 

I saw, and even used, a tape demagnetizer years ago, but I don't have 
one. Paul's idea shows that I have a collection of good, strong magnets 
to work with, once I take the drives apart.

> Pistol or rifle targets?

Reminds me of the one time I went skeet shooting.


On 06/21/2012 04:45 PM, guy1656 at opusnet.com wrote:
> Two ideas: 1) You can try a .50cal rifle, and 1 round can go through 
> quite a few of them. Contact me privately if you want to give this a 
> "shot." 2) If the individual disks ( 2 - 4 to a drive) are similar 
> size and thickness, you can make a handy little Tesla-style disk 
> turbine or pump af a mechancal engineering project. 

I'll pass on the .50 cal rifle idea, it would be fun to try the ME 
experiment. I do have quite a few drives to dispose of.


On 06/22/2012 08:29 AM, Chris Berry wrote:
> FYI, if you need any of that data you can sometimes recover it by 
> putting them in the freezer inside a ziplock bag for about 30 minutes 
> first. You'll then sometimes get about 5-10min of time to get your 
> data off. 

All but one of these are several years old, and the data has been 
superseded. But this is an idea I'll keep for future reference.

Thanks to all. The winning recommendation is to take them apart, us the 
magnets on the platters, create some art, and send the rest to recycling.

-- 
Regards,

Dick Steffens